Chimera Reading Salon．New Urban Perspectives | Cities and Culture

Introduction

“Chimera Reading Salon．New Urban Perspectives” continues the spirit of The Chimera Group, a transdisciplinary arts society founded in the 1950s by Wang Da-Hong, who often invited artists for cultural gatherings at his home. This event began with “architecture” and gradually expanded to performing arts, art, literature, photography, and review, recreating the free and open transdisciplinary communication at Wang’s home. With “city” at its core, the first series invites Professor Chih-Hung Wang from the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University, and a special guest to explore new perspectives on urban space and culture through six of his translated books on the subject. The third lecture, “Cities and Culture,” will be based on the book Naked City: The Life and Death of a Pure Urban Place, which will lead participants to an in-depth discussion through an introductory reading by Wang and a sharing by special guest Professor Pao-Ning Yin .

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Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places

A modern upgrade of Jane Jacobs’ legendary book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961.

As cities gentrify, cultured urbanites increasingly cherish what they perceive as “authentic” city life—old buildings, art galleries, boutique shops, upscale food markets, ethnic restaurants. These elements signal a place’s “authenticity,” starkly contrasting with bland, cookie-cutter urban planning. Yet the rapid, inflated demand for “authenticity”—manifested in soaring housing prices, expensive shops, and heavily monitored city streets—has displaced the very people who originally gave neighborhoods their “authentic” character: immigrants, working-class residents, and independent artists.

With a journalist’s keen eye and the penetrating insight of a seasoned commentator and observer, Sharon Zukin conducts a panoramic investigation of contemporary New York. She traces the economic and social transformations of six archetypal neighborhoods, guiding readers through visits to the city’s first IKEA and the memorial at the World Trade Center site. She reveals how real estate developers and government officials collaborate to smooth out the grit and diversity of the urban landscape, erasing community history and identity in pursuit of a pristine, new-look city. Naked City compels us to consider how to defend the livelihoods of ordinary people and the marginalized, how to create space for young creatives to forge new visions, and how to preserve the city’s multifaceted character.